Just another annoying Self Insert
by Reaper Of All Souls
Summary: 15 years before the start of the game, a stranger comes, he learns the trade of the blacksmith from a dwarf, and now looks towards the future he knows is coming, this is his, my, story. Rating may change. Warnings, swearing. OC/SI*Rewriting cuz it's crap*
1. Prologue

Reaper of all Souls does not own Tales of Symphonia or anything else non-original that may be used.

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_It started off rather as a normal day, wake up, shower, get breakfast, go to school, do my last exam, get ready for my week of no school. But it seems that my week off wasn't to be. One day I go to sleep, the next I wake in a thunderstorm on the top of a cliff. Being half-asleep still, I wasn't all there, in the literal sense as well. It was like both earth and Sylvarant both wanted me there. I was the rope in the game of tug of war._

_As I was slowly coming into full consciousness, I saw coming up the nearby path three figures and a large dog-like creature. They were running like the hounds of hell themselves were upon them. The flash of lightning illuminating their faces shocked me into a fully awake state. It was three people who I recognized almost instantly, Kratos, Lloyd, and who I assumed was Anna._

_Anna was interesting. She was rather plain, the only thing that stood out most was a vibrant aura of kindness and a glint in her eyes of a strong sense of what is right and wrong. Kratos, it seems, was the only one who could see me in my semi-corporeal state, must have been the angelic abilities, or him being able to use mana._

_The Desains came next, quietly, efficiently, like an unstoppable juggernaut they came in large numbers. Kvar lead them. I know he saw me, as he kicked me in the head on his way past. (I now assume that only those with high levels of mana could see me while I was in that form) The kick sent me rolling to the nearby edge of the cliff. (Odd that, they can affect me, but I can't do anything to them, I couldn't even stand)_

_By the time when I managed to look back at the fight, I saw something that I will truly remember for as long as I live; Lloyd had wings, (Much smaller then at the end of the game though) and was casting magic. It didn't last long. Soon Kvar had removed Anna's exsphere and she changed into an Exbelua. By this point I could watch no longer, I closed my eyes and but a few seconds later I found myself falling, the back of my sweater in Lloyds hands, him in his mothers arms, and Kratos yelling up a storm._

_I never felt it when I hit the ground, but at this point I was fully awake and not half-ghostly. It took about five minutes for Dirk to get there. Just as he came into view I felt my consciousness slipping. I woke up some hours later and helped Dirk bury too Anna, Lloyd luckily was asleep still. This was 15 years ago. We later found Lloyd had hit his head and lost the use of his Angelic gene and magic along with a good hunk of his I.Q._

_I'm going into Iselia today. It's the Oracle; I might try to see if I can't help the chosen._

_This country life isn't for me._

_-Last entry_

_Matthew Irving (adopted, such as it were)_


	2. Chapter 1: The Beginning

Reaper of all Souls does not own Tales of Symphonia or anything else non-original that may be used.

Reaper:Sorry for the extremely long update time, I had some trouble getting interested in writing and a missing muse, which came back when I finally got Dawn of the new World. It's been a while since I've played ToS so my game script might be rusty. Now on with the story! Also, due to some law that probably exists in some form, I am now considering this to be a partial SI partial OCI, due to the fact that SI's evolve into there own character and change greatly from the original personality.

Edit start – Oct/09/09 Attempt to fix glaring plot holes.

Edit returned to – March 25, 2010 – general laziness caused lack of work.

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(1st Person PoV)

I closed my Journal and sighed heavily, looking at the black cover and the angelic writings on it. It had surprised me to learn that English was the angelic language used in the game. People still spoke English, but it was a different written language. Turning around to look at my wall I stopped at my war hammer, I had made it myself under guidance from Dirk, my master and adoptive father, who I asked to be apprenticed to three years after I got here.

15 years, 15 years since I had seen my family and friends, I missed them at first but eventually the ache faded as I made new friends amongst the villagers of Iselia. I had changed quite a bit over 15 years, mostly gaining muscle mass from work as a blacksmith, losing all the fat I had on my body before I had got here. I had let my hair grow over the years, keeping it at about mid-back area in a loose pony tail, my eyes retained there blue color, but the green star like shape in them had become more prominent and glow in the dark (1) due to the mana in the world. My body itself, being 6'2", showed that I had been working a forge for years of my life, my muscle proudly displayed to the world.

Continuing to look around the room Dirk had given me I gazed at a Hammer and Sword made of a blue material that appeared to be bubbling. They were made of Vorpal, an extremely rare and beautiful material. The Vorpal as given to Dirk by a man named Richter who had commissioned the sword, he had never come to collect it and we were never able to find anything out about the man. The hammer was my final project as Dirk's apprentice, to make anything out of a difficult material to mold. The hammer is a spiked war hammer with a blade at the bottom of the mythril haft.

Standing up from my desk I put my journal into a pack beside it. I grabbed my crimson overcoat and Iron War Hammer from their spots on the wall and took all three with me out into Dirks underground forge. In the forge I went to my armor rack, looking at the red armor with its dull shine, taking part of my full armor, shoulders, elbows, chest, and greaves. Walking to the stairs I knocked on the trap door at their top to make sure no one was standing there, opening it after five seconds and entering the main area of the house.

(End 1st person)

"Mornin' Dirk, Lloyd still sleeping?" Matt says coming up from the true forge (2) blinking his eyes so they would adjust to the change in light.

"Nah, he left hours ago, its afternoon now." Dirk replied.

"Crap, hate to eat and run, but I got stuff to do today!" Matt says grabbing some bread and a wedge of cheese while running out the door.

Just outside the Desian base, after he had eaten the bread and cheese, he started slowing down so he didn't look in too much of a rush. Getting past the base without too much trouble he started running down the hill only to trip head first on a rock.

"Oh, that's a killer headache." He mumbles as he tries to get up. After falling back to the ground, and subsequently the rock, several times Matt finally manages to get back up. Stumbling around while attempting to get his bearings back, he trips again, over a wolf pup, "Crap, momma's gonna be mad."

The wolf starts to growl, and why not, some ignorant human comes and uses him to acquaint with the ground, the nerve! Matt grabs his hammer and prepares for what's coming. Dodging the wolf's charge he swings and hits the wolf in the side, launching it into a tree from the force. The wolf doesn't get up. Looting the wolf, wondering why they have gald and where they keep it, he hears another growl behind him. Slowly turning his head he spied mama wolf.

The wolf's charge got him this time, causing him to stagger back. Putting his weight on his back foot Matt makes a spinning strike with the spike, leaving a deep slash on her front leg, "Back off now and I won't kill you." The wolf ignores him and makes a leap for Matt's throat; he reacts by placing the spike in the wolf's path.

The wolf dissipates into mana, no longer having life to hold it to the mortal plain. Grabbing the apple gel and gald left behind, Matt shoulders his hammer stating, "What a waste of life," continuing on to Iselia.

Upon reaching the village gates he notices that the usual hustle and bustle of this time of day is missing, "Crap, I'm late," he mutters taking a right at the first chance. Coming up to the Brunel household he opens the door, placing his hammer on the front stoop.

"Then, we shall entrust the protection of the Chosen to Kratos and Raine," the Mayor says, a bit of surprise and anger in his eyes at seeing Matt enter so casually, "You have no right to go barging into other peoples homes, outsider." Kratoses ('s?) eyes shoot up at this as he gets a good look at the stranger who just entered the building. The man was tall, with red hair. He wore a crimson sleeveless trench coat with a white mussel shirt underneath, black pants, and parts of red armor. From under the armor on his chest came the soft blue glow of an exsphere.

"Hello Phaidra, Frank, Colette, Lloyd, Genius, Purple-clad man, what's up?" The new arrival says, completely ignoring the mayor.

"Hello Matt," says every one but Kratos who mutters under his breath, "The sky." (6)

"Original, but no… looks like a ceiling to me. Anyway, back to my original reason for coming here. Colette, do you mind if I go with you on your journey?"

"You can't just come in here and ask her, we decide who goes!" the mayor yells, not giving Colette a chance to answer.

"Are you the one going on the journey?" Matt asks, looking at the mayor for the first time.

"Beside the point, if the Chosen were to decide who could go with, she would pick everyone and their dogs!"

"Not arguing that point, Colette is far to trusting for her own good, but you personally are not going, so why do you have a say? In this case the decision should be up to Raine and Kratos, who I assume is this man in purple."

"Yes, on both subjects. He may come." Kratos says.

"I agree," Phaidra states, "after all, I had meant to ask him to accompany her into the temple, but it seems he lost track of time, again."

"Sorry about that, I was finishing up my last journal entry."

"Well, you're here now, and I give my permission for you to accompany Colette."

"Thank you, Phaidra, is there anything else that needs to be done here?"

"Discussing Kratos, the mercenaries, pay."

"Ok, Kratos, would I be able to speak with you in private after the terms of your pay are completed? Oh, and Happy Birthday Colette, your gift is back at Dirk's, so I'll bring it tomorrow." Matt walked out the door, ignoring the Mayor yelling at him about respect. Spying his hammer, he grabbed it and walked to the back of the village. Standing by the gate, he sat and closed his eyes.

Some time later he was woken by a kick to the side, Kratos was standing over him. Matt got up, grabbed his hammer, and walked out of the village motioning for Kratos to follow him. About halfway to the temple he stopped in a glade and sat again. "You know, it's been about 15 years since I last saw you, on that cliff. 15 years spent raising your son, even if he is practically an idiot now."

"Humph, so how much did I miss?"

Matt doesn't respond, but reaches into his backpack and passes Kratos a black leather-bound book. "It's all in there, everything, starting 14 and a half years ago, ending yesterday. Just skip the personal parts."

"So, how did you hear me say 'the sky' anyway, only an angel should have heard that?"

"Anna's angelus exsphere, it split in half and both reformed from it, me and Lloyd both have a half of it, but mine held the already absorbed emotions of Anna, as such, it was that much closer to completion. I got everything but the wings and half the strength. And her emotions defiantly helped in both raising Lloyd, and calming me down about being stuck here."

"So the exsphere made a more powerful version of a Cruxis crystal after all, and all it cost was my wife's life."

"I might have an idea about that, is that your crystal or a normal exsphere?"

"My crystal, why?"

"This may sound really weird, but touch it to the one I'm wearing, and think about Anna." Matt says, taking off the chest plate of the armor he's wearing. Kratos the touches the crystal on his hand to the one on Matt's chest, and a bright light appears. (3)

Out of the light comes a ghostly figure of a woman with brown hair, and green eyes. "Her spirit has been, well, transferred to your crystal. I'll leave the two of you alone, but I think that only the two of us can see her Kratos, makes sense since were the only ones to have contact with her spirit. I gotta get back to Dirks now. See you later!" Matt says while gathering his stuff and leaving the area. (4,5)

After a uneventful walk back through the village and forest Matt arrived shortly before Lloyd, walking over to the counter, he grabbed a piece of whatever meat was sitting there and headed downstairs to grab Colette's gift, a gold chain with a piece of pink mana stone attached, it would hopefully look like her wings whenever she brought them out. Coming back upstairs and narrowly avoiding getting caught up in the conversation Lloyd and Dirk were having, he stepped outside and sat on a bench waiting for the group to make it to the house.

"You didn't have to hit me," Lloyd yells while slamming the door. "Let me guess, you heard all of that didn't you" he says when he sees the group of people at the front of his house.

"Ya, they heard it Lloyd, anyway, while I remember, Colette, here's your gift." Matt says, handing Colette the necklace. "Lloyd, tell Dirk I'm sleeping outside tonight, and that I have something for him to check on in the forge, I'll see you all tomorrow." Matt says leaving the area. Walking back to the village he stops just outside and heads left around the wall to a small locked door, an old cold storage from at least a century ago. Matt had spent quite a bit of time getting the place into a livable condition. So long as no one brought exuberant amounts of ice, or cast anything more powerful than icicle, the room would stay a comfortable 72. Matt had made this place his getaway from the things that annoyed him. It had some of the old shelves still attached to the wall, now they held a multitude of gels and bottles, foodstuffs and gald. Putting the gels and gald from the wolves with the rest, he walked over to the only empty spot on the wall, and hung his hammer from the hooks he had put there. Moving to a surprisingly comfortable bed in a corner, he took off his armor, and went to sleep.

**Edit:** finished 1st edit March 25, 2010. Please inform of any grammar, spelling, or errors in general.

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Ok, I think I rushed the ending, but it should still be good. Please review and tell me what I can do better, and keep in mind I'm still looking for a beta.

(1) Ripping off ToA's Fon slots kinda. Mana here absorbed through the eyes made a star shaped thing in his eyes glow.

(2) The thing in the kitchen is an oven.

(3) Almost typed, "Threatens to engulf them" there.

(4) Can't do mushy stuff yet.

(5) If Kratos seemed OOC, I blame emotion.

(6) I caught this while editing, I have no idea why I put this here, seemed like something to do.

Anyway, review please, even if it's only 1 letter!

A picture of Matt can be found here http:// hdshbsag. deviantart. com/art/OC-SI-type-thing-138563780 For anyone how cares, yes this is my Devi.


	3. Chapter 2: Iselia to HoS

**Reaper of all Souls does not own Tales of Symphonia or any other copyrighted series mentioned.**

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Matt woke up to a loud knock on his door, getting out of his bed and grabbing his hammer he went up the stairs and opened the door with it's head. Standing at the opening was Kratos.

"So I guess one of the three told bout my little hideout, or was it something else?" Matt said, noticing that it was still dark out, but the sun was going to rise in a few minutes.

"Unique mana signatures are very good for tracking people down, especially when the person hasn't figured out how to suppress them."

"Hum, give me a few minutes to gather some stuff and I'll be right up," Matt said as he moved back into the underground area and gathered some medicines and items from the shelves that lined the walls, "Come down if you want, it's a fairly interesting place. Used to be an ice pit, for keeping meat and fruit fresh, but it was abandoned when I found it, managed to make a form of insulation out of some cotton and debris from the forest."

"As interesting as the history is, it doesn't seem to have a point, and Anna has something to say to you."

Anna's voice came as her figure was fading into view in front of Kratos, "I wanted to thank you for helping raise my son. And for helping give me the power to appear in the world of the living, half an exsphere doesn't have enough power, but one and a half does."

"Half an exsphere won't even let you talk to me in my head, let alone materialize in this plane. I knew you were trying, it just made my head hurt though," Matt said looking Anna in the face and tying up the top of his bag.

"If I didn't know what you were talking about, and actually had a physical form, I would so slap you."

"You would slap me anyway, just because you wanted to, you were stuck in my head long enough for me to figure that out. Anyway, Kratos, how far into the journal did you get?"

"I haven't opened it yet, why?" he responded, eyebrow slightly raised.

"Doesn't matter, not that important, anyway I'm finished packing, let's go meet the others," I say, closing the draw on my pack. I walk past Kratos and up the stairs, noticing that the sun has yet to rise. I walk to the gates of Iselia to see that no one is there yet. Kratos approaches from behind and states that will be about 45 minutes before the sun will rise and the rest of the group will show then.

"Anything else you wanted?" I ask as I sit next to the gatepost and close my eyes.

"No" he responds as I crack an eye open, watching as he leans next to the opposite gate post and starts reading my journal. I close my eye, drifting back to sleep.

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Yet again I'm rudely awakened, this time by a white haired brat kicking me. "Genis, stop," I growl out, getting up and taking a look around.

" Then wake up earlier, the others were about to leave"

True to his word the others had shouldered their packs, and a few of the villagers sending them off were laughing at me.

"Sorry," I mutter, rubbing the back of my head, "Sleep seems to hate letting me go." Everyone looks disbelieving, but lets it go. As I look around I notice that Phaidra, the mayor and Lloyd aren't here, not wanting to start anything I stay quiet. Walking up to the group I ask lowly, "We ready?" to which Kratos responds with a grunt and a slight nod.

Making sure I have everything quickly I stand slightly away from the group and wait for them to start. I scan the crowd. Women are weeping openly on whoever's shoulder is closest. Men are putting up a front, they look like nothing's wrong, but you can see it in their eyes. Children look on in joy and confusion at their parent's actions. I look at Collette, she looks happy, but everyone over the age of 18 (and Genis) knows that she wants to stay.

Nobody but Genis comes to send me off, all of the villagers are like minded with the Mayor when it comes to me, I'm the outsider, to them I shouldn't even be living near the town. I haven't told anyone, but I get accused of being a Desian spy on an almost daily basis, and the events that will take place later today will only prove that theory, my idea is that the base it all on my hair and my eyes, and consider me to be at least part elf. Raine has told them repeatedly that I'm not.

Raine grabs my shoulder as they walk past, no more words are spoken to our group, it would hurt too much for them. We know that we will not return unless something disastrous occurs. We walk silently away from the village, and soon it can no longer be seen behind us. I turn to Collette, "You told Lloyd noon didn't you?"

She nods and keeps looking forward, so I start to think about this journey.

The world is actually quite big, but quite small at the same time. The House of Salvation was at least a day from Iselia, but at the same time Dirk's house was only an hour away, with the Ranch partway between the two. Iselia in itself was larger than it is shown as; there are maybe 14-15 more houses than are in the game, mostly for the priests and their families. The Ranch was quite a bit bigger too, maybe the size of a high school or apartment complex above ground.

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We've been walking for about 3 hours now, the mood has lightened us considerably, and we've yet to see any sign what so ever of… spoke too soon, there are the first few monsters now. It's 2 Wolves and a Hawk. Raine stands in the back of the group, looking slightly nervous. Collette is in front of her, holding her chakrams ready. Kratos is in front of her sword out and all business. I'm standing slightly in front of Kratos, as I'm the guy with the giant hammer, and the dwarven armor.

The wolves growl at us and as they start to circle us, they look back at a sound from the hawk. The hawk is dissipating on the ground, a chakram soaring back to the one who threw it. Taking advantage of the distraction, myself and Kratos move on the remaining wolves, I take the one on the left, and swing my hammer on it's back, It dissipates with a sharp crack of breaking spine. I look to Kratos to see him sheathing his blade and the black mist of the wolf bubbles away. I look to Collette and see her shoulder shaking slightly; she truly hates violence in any form.

Four years ago, when Collette got her first pair of chakrams, I told her that if she ever needed to talk about something that she did with them that I would listen. She never has.

"If only they could all be that easy," Raine mutters under her breath. _They only ever get harder_ I think to myself. I look at the sky, the sun is a quarter of the way through it's own daily journey. _Soon, maybe an hour or two, and Iselia will be attacked._

_

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_We reach the House of Salvation an hour before dark. _I hope Lloyd and Genis found that Nova guy._ We had met him around noon, camped a bit off the road. We had a pleasant conversation and lunch before we continued on. We had encountered a few more monsters; the only injuries were from when Collette decided that she had to pet a young bunny in a field. That field happened to be a nesting ground for near 50 of the little creatures. Kratos found a need to "learn" an AoE spell that he had been "trying" to figure out for a bit, he's a good actor, there's no way explosion could have left him that drained.

After abusing the Chosen's status (Read: Getting a free room) I found my self unable to sleep. I walk outside and sit in a chair by the side of the building. Shortly afterwards Kratos comes out the door. He looks in my direction and states, "Anna has passed on."

"She found her peace, she needed that. But did you make yours?"

"Yes, I can feel no guilt after talking to her again, hearing her side."

"You need time though, time to come to terms with the fact that she's really gone. I'll leave you alone, if you feel a need to talk tomorrow, just ask." I get up and head inside, Kratos doesn't say a word, and just sits in the chair I had just left. I lie down on the bed, and after half an hour of tossing and turning, fall asleep.

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**Well, that took a while to get done, I started this after getting the first chapter done, and only finished it now. Any way if you have any questions or comments, leave a review. If you want to flame, leave a review, it'll make the story look like it's more popular. And if anybody reading this is interested, I need a beta. If there are any volunteers, send a PM and I'll look into it.**

**RoaS**


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